Surah Ar-Ra'd 13:8-18 - Quran Translation Commentary

10. It is alike (for Him) whether any of you conceal his speech or declare it openly, whether (any of you) lie hid in the (darkness of) night or walk freely by the (light of) day.

11. For him are guards in succession before and behind him; they guard him by Allah’s command.²⁶Verily Allah does not change the condition of a people until they (first) change what is with themselves.²⁷ And if Allah wills a torment for a people, there is no warding it off nor will there be, beside Him, any protector.

12. It is He who shows you lightning, creating fear and hope,²⁸ and raises the heavy clouds.²⁹

13. And the thunder of clouds glorifies and praises him ³⁰ and the angels do so for the awe of Him.³¹ And He sends thunder-bolts and strikes with them whom He will;³² but they (people) dispute concerning Allah, and (the fact is) He is the Mighty Powerful.³³

14. Invoking Him (in prayer) is the truth;³⁴ and those others whom they invoke beside Allah do not respond to them at all;³⁵ but it (their invoking) is like a person stretching forth his hands towards water so that it may come to his mouth, and it will never reach it.³⁶ And the invoking (in prayer) of the disbelievers is in vain.³⁷

15. And before Allah prostrates himself whoever is in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, as do their shadows in the morning and the evening.³⁸

16. Ask them: “Who is Lord of the heavens and the earth?” Say: “Allah.” Ask (them): “Have you then taken others beside Him for protectors, which, even to themselves, can do neither good nor harm ?”³⁹ Say: “ Are the blind and the seeing alike ?⁴⁰ Or is darkness equal to light?⁴¹ Or have the partners assigned to Allah by them created the like of His creation that it seemed alike to them ?”⁴² Say: “ Allah is the Creator of all things, and He is the One, the Subduer.”⁴³

17. He sent down water (rain) from the sky, so that valleys flowed according to their measure, then the flood bears (on its surface) swelling foam-and from what they smelt in the fire to make ornaments or other things a foam like it rises-thus does Allah express the truth and falsehood. So the foam passes away as the scum upon the banks, while what is of use to mankind remains in the earth. Thus does Allah present parables.⁴⁴

18. For those who responded to their Lord is bliss, and for those who did not respond to Him, if they had all that is in the earth, and together with its like (in vain) they would proffer it in ransom.⁴⁵ For them will be the woeful reckoning;⁴⁶ their abode will be Hell, a dismal resting place!

Commentary

23. Allah alone knows of what nature the unborn child is in the mother’s womb and what are his qualities, etc., and whether the mother will give birth to her child at the end of nine months or earlier. Similarly, the detailed knowledge of the birth of the off springs of the animals is also possessed by Allah alone.

24. That is: Whether it is the case of the termination of pregnancy or any other matter, Allah has fixed the time of every event according to His own plan, and His knowledge covers every part and detail of the event. It is also essentially within His knowledge when a nation will be visited by the divine punishment. Therefore, if no punishment is cracking down on you even after rejecting the message of the Prophet just now, it does not mean that no punishment will overtake you in future. Punishment—in the wake of your rejecting the message of the Prophet ----- will surely come, but it will come at the appointed hour, which is known to Allah only.

25. In the verse a few attributes of Allah have been mentioned. First He is the knower of what is hidden and what is open, and all perceptible and imperceptible things. Secondly, He is the Greatest of all (Kabir), that is in His attributes and might He is perfect and above everybody. Thirdly, He is Most High and Exalted in honour, that is: it will not be proper to judge Him by the standards applicable to His creatures, He is above all these parameters.

The purpose is to give here the right concept of Allah’s greatness, consequent upon which the feelings of worshipping Him and being accountable to Him are spontaneously generated in man’s heart, and he shudders from the very thought of receiving His punishment.

26. Means angels who are attached to every person for guarding him/her. Their duties are so arranged that they attend on a person one after another continually. A man’s life is surrounded by all kinds of dangers and there is every likelihood of his falling a prey to one danger or another, but Allah has made this provision for guarding man from all these dangers that He has appointed angels in front and in the rear of man who give him protection, and a man is harmed by some danger only when it has been destined so by Allah.

27. Where Allah has made provision for guarding an individual there he has also made provision for guarding the safety of nations too. Accordingly, when Allah grants a nation the blessed gifts of peace and security, this gift is snatched away from that nation only when it does not appreciate this great gift and is bent on straying away from God’s path, for it is not Allah’s law that He should snatch away the blessed gift from a nation without any rhyme or reason. Here the purpose is to especially hint at the eventuality that the peace and security being enjoyed at present by the rejectors of faith will not last long, because they have proved themselves to be unworthy of it. Now this gift will be essentially snatched away from them. Accordingly only a few years after this it had become difficult for the infidels to hide anywhere in the land of Arabs. Thus Allah’s law was made applicable to them.

28. If on the one hand lightning creates fear in the human heart, on the other it also creates a hope for the rain, as if lightning simultaneously reminds the people that Allah’s punishment can overtake them and that they can also hope to receive rain or His blessings by His favour only.

29. That is: The clouds heavily laden with rainwater are lifted by Allah only. In other words this system is created by Allah only, under which the rain laden clouds rise high and spread out in the sky and shower rain in far and wide places.

30. So far as the science is concerned, thunder is the result of electrical discharge. On account of the interaction of the vapours positive charge is generated in the upper portion of the clouds and negative charge is generated in the lower portion. When the quantum of the electrical charge is sufficiently increased, then electricity is discharged, and the electric current with tremendous heat spreads out in the air and the electric wave becomes the sound wave, which is called thunder. This is the physical reality about thunder, which has the informative aspect. But Qur’an invites man’s attention to the spiritual meaning of this reality, which is of real importance, and it is this: The thunder of the clouds declares that there is a God of this universe, who has not turned unconcerned after creating it, but is actually managing its affairs and demonstrates the marvels of His might: and He is powerful to bring down His cracking whip of punishment on His rebellious slaves. In short, those whose ears have not become deaf can hear in the thunder of the clouds the declaration of the greatness of Allah.

31. That is: He is such a great Being that even angels tremble with awe, then what impression should man get from hearing the outburst of the thundering clouds?

32. When a thundering lightning falls on somebody it instantly kills him. This is man’s common observation, and nobody can say who will be its next victim and when.

33. That is: these thundering clouds and cracking lightnings are declaring and demonstrating that the Lord of this universe has tremendous power. Men should have shuddered on hearing this declaration, but the condition of men is such that they have the temerity of involving themselves in discussions about God, some say that this is not the work of God but of devtas (imagined gods), others argue that God cannot revive dead persons, and the present day ‘intellectuals’ put forth the theory of a godless universe, so that they may be free from God forever!

34. Calling or invoking God means praying to God for seeking His help. It is the attribute of Allah alone. That He hears the call of every invoker and fulfills their needs and reaches to them in their hours of need. Therefore, invoking Him is quite right and proper and in accordance with reality, and since besides Allah there is no one who has this attribute, invoking anybody besides Allah, whether an idol, a jinn, an angel, a saint, or a prophet, is absolutely wrong and contrary to realism.

35. What a large number of Muslims turn towards durgahs, and mazars for seeking help in their hours of need, on account of their ignorance! They think that the pious people buried in these graves hear their prayers and fulfil their needs, but such a thought is as false and wrong as the thought of the polytheists about their gods.

36. In the ayah it has been very clearly and unambiguously stated that nobody but nobody besides Allah can hear and answer anybody’s prayer and invoking.

That is: As a person may stretch his hands towards water and request it to reach his mouth, the water will neither hear this request nor will it reach his mouth to quench his thirst, similarly the deities before whom the polytheists stretch their hands and pray for help neither hear their prayer nor do they come to their aid.

It should be noted that ‘to stretch hand before the water so that it may reach the mouth’ is an idiom of Arabic, which means requesting the unattainable or the useless request, and the meaning of the ayah is the same.

37. That is: Calling or invoking others besides Allah as the infidels do is useless.

For those who responded to their Lord is bliss, and for those who did not respond to Him, if they had all that is in the earth, and together with its like (in vain) they would proffer it in ransom. For them will be the woeful reckoning; their abode will be Hell, a dismal resting place! (Al-Quran)

38. All the creatures in the heavens and the earth, whether angels or jinns or others, all prostrate themselves before Allah in one way or the other. Some bow their heads before Him willingly, but others, though not intentionally, are compelled by the natural law to bow before their Creator. For a disbeliever to breathe in order to live, or to eat food, or his moving his limbs to walk is his following Allah’s law, and this following by the infidels of the laws made by Allah is nothing but their bowing before Him, though it may be a bowing which is done under compulsion, and that is why such a bowing does not entitle them to be called Momin or faithful slaves of Allah.

The clear sign of everything prostrating itself before God is its shadow, which increases and decreases in shape. No denier of God has the power to prevent his shadow falling on the ground. He refuses to obey Allah in his voluntary life, but in his involuntary living his whole existence, his being, is bowed down before God. Would that he contemplates this fact! This is an ‘ayat-i-sajdah, therefore, on reciting it one should at once prostrate oneself before Allah.

39. The polytheism that has been decried here is that which envisages a being other than God as “wali” or the being who comes to one’s rescue, or in other words to hold the belief that although that being is not seen by us but he/she has the power to benefit or harm us and he/she can help us in an unseen way. Such a concept is totally false and such a belief is absolutely polytheistic, for there is no one beside Allah who can benefit or harm us in reality. whether it is in relation to an idol or a tree, a spirit or an angel, and a prophet or a saint. And it is also not necessary that the being be addressed as a god or lord, but the very belief of considering him/her as ‘the unseen rescuer’ is considering him/her as a god. Therefore, any person who deals with another being in a manner which is reserved for God alone, is committing polytheism.

Qur’an asks such people: When the Lord of the universe is Allah, then how these beings have become rescuers or wali ?

40. Here blind means intellectually incapable to judge and the seeing means those who can see or judge with their intelligence.

41. Darknesses means darknesses of ignorance and light means light of the knowledge of the truth.

42. That is: When there is no proof of any other being creating anything, then how can there be more than one god? Anything beside God is the created thing or a creature. Then what is the meaning of granting the rank of a Creator to the creature? How can the attribute of creation come in a creature?

43. After creation nothing has gone out of control of Allah, everything is in and under His control. Therefore, how can a thing or person that is under His control become god?

44. This is an example of the struggle between truth and falsehood. Causing rainwater to fall from the heavens means sending down Divine revelation. Flowing of the valleys according to their measure means deriving benefit by the people who have the capability to accept the truth according to their capacity, the flood is the flood of truth, and the foam signifies the foam of falsehood, which comes out during the struggle of truth and falsehood. In the second example the ornaments of gold and silver stand for the first rank sincere faithful people and other things stands for the common righteous people. Smelting them in the fire means subjecting them to trials. It means that when the struggle between truth and falsehood takes place, falsehood comes out prominently but its reality is nothing more than that of foam; it subsides and disappears in a short time. However, the truth remains in the same way in which water remains in the earth. Similarly, when the gold, silver and other metals are smelted in the fire the dirt and impurities come out prominently and are soon done away with, and what is pure gold or silver or other metal remains. In other words, the natural law is that whatever is really beneficial to the people should survive and whatever is harmful should disappear. After the revelation of the Qur’an, the struggle that ensued between truth and falsehood caused falsehood to come out prominently for a short time like the foam, but the final result was that the truth endured and remained supreme while falsehood was destroyed and disappeared.

45. For explanation, see Note No. 124, Surah Maidah.

46. That is: When they would appear before Allah for giving account of their deeds or misdeeds, their reckoning will be very strict and severe and they will have to account for every small bit of their action.